Pg. 87-89: But what, on the whole, did Greek music sound like? We would love to know for sure, though the few scraps we still possess of ancient msuical notation belong to later periods and are of uncertain interpretation. From fragments of evidence, however, we can approach an answer.
There is no suggestion in the evidence that the singers, even when singing in chorus, sang in harmony. Though lyres and sets of pipes must have been capable of simple harmonies, the music seems to have been cnetered on melody, rhythm, and - something less familiar to us - mode. In our Western music we still know the modes "major" and "minor." The Greeks had five modes, known to us by their names - Ionian, Aeolian, Lydian, Dorian, and Phrygian - which referred also to ethnic groupings within greece.
Each of these modes, each of which had submodes, was easily recognized by listeners, and each created a characteristic mood, just as we might say, "That sounded like a Scottish ballad. This sounds like a Spanish dance." Each Greek mode was constructed from an invariable sequence of relationships between the notes that no other mode possessed, more distinct that E flat major is from C minor, perhaps at times more akin to Asian music with its larger intervals and quarter tones. The Dorian was martial, the Phrygian engendered contentment, the Mixolydian (one of the submodes) was plaintive, the Ionian softly alluring, apparently making seduction easier.
In all, Greek music probably sounded something like the late medieval music of Europe with its emphases on catchy, easily singable melodies, exaggerated rhythms, and humble instrumental accompaniment - Gregorian chant gone wild in the streets.
[CHAP. 2] [AP HOME]
Pg. 87-89:
But what, on the whole, did Greek music sound like? We would love to know for sure, though the few scraps we still possess of ancient msuical notation belong to later periods and are of uncertain interpretation. From fragments of evidence, however, we can approach an answer.
There is no suggestion in the evidence that the singers, even when singing in chorus, sang in harmony. Though lyres and sets of pipes must have been capable of simple harmonies, the music seems to have been cnetered on melody, rhythm, and - something less familiar to us - mode. In our Western music we still know the modes "major" and "minor." The Greeks had five modes, known to us by their names - Ionian, Aeolian, Lydian, Dorian, and Phrygian - which referred also to ethnic groupings within greece.
Each of these modes, each of which had submodes, was easily recognized by listeners, and each created a characteristic mood, just as we might say, "That sounded like a Scottish ballad. This sounds like a Spanish dance." Each Greek mode was constructed from an invariable sequence of relationships between the notes that no other mode possessed, more distinct that E flat major is from C minor, perhaps at times more akin to Asian music with its larger intervals and quarter tones. The Dorian was martial, the Phrygian engendered contentment, the Mixolydian (one of the submodes) was plaintive, the Ionian softly alluring, apparently making seduction easier.
In all, Greek music probably sounded something like the late medieval music of Europe with its emphases on catchy, easily singable melodies, exaggerated rhythms, and humble instrumental accompaniment - Gregorian chant gone wild in the streets.